


The Right Way to Eat Salt Salt Ice Cream

by aurons_fan



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, this can be read as gen if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 10:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3484451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurons_fan/pseuds/aurons_fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hayner stumbles onto a crying Kairi in The Usual Spot and ... has no idea what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Way to Eat Salt Salt Ice Cream

**Author's Note:**

> Requested from tumblr with the pairing: Kairi/who ever I choose, and the prompt: things you said when you were crying. 
> 
> I dunno. They seem like such opposites and Hayner is so standoffish I WAS EXCITED OKAY?

Hayner was still a bit suspicious about the girl (Kairi, he thinks. Her name is _Kairi_ ) who had just appeared from a portal in the wall into their Usual Spot, but she was nice and Hayner wasn't a bully. That was Seifer's job. But if he had stayed quiet and hung towards the back when Pence and Olette showed her around Twilight Town, that was no one's business but his own.

But when he goes to the Usual Spot one day, Sea Salt ice cream in one hand and plans to take down Seifer in the other, and sees Kairi sitting in _his_  spot on the crates sobbing, he stopped short.

Kairi glanced up and scrubbed at her eyes, embarrassed. "Sorry," she said, turning away from him. "I didn't think you guys would be here so soon."

"Uh," Hayner said, glancing behind him. Nope, no Olette to offer comforting hugs and no Pence to tell her jokes to make her feel better. "I'm ...early."

She nodded, before bursting into tears again, and what was Hayner supposed to do? Was _he_  supposed to give her comforting hugs? He didn't really have any jokes besides ones that he'd plan to tell about Seifer's mom, but he didn't think those would cheer her up. 

He frowned to himself, before approaching and offering up his only ice cream. Kairi blinked tears out of her eyes, looking up.

"Here," he grumbled. He coughed, tried again. "Here. Maybe this will make you feel better."

She blinked again, gingerly taking the ice cream. "Why," she said, wiping her eyes again. "Is it blue."

Hayner resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "It's Sea Salt! Come on, you don't have that where you're from?"

She tilted her head, as if staring at the ice cream from the side would answer her questions. "...No."

Hayner scowled. "It is amazing. If Sea Salt ice cream could be a food group, it would be."

She laughed, sounding a little watery, and took a tentative lick. "Oh." She frowned. "It is good."

He hopped onto the crate next to her and grinned. "See? What did I tell you."

Kairi bit off a part (seeming to ignore Hayner's silent scream because who in the world  _bites_  ice cream?) before sighing and lowering the bar. "I'm just sick of being useless," she said, wiping her eyes again.

Hayner coughed. Uh oh. Girl talk. Except this didn't _sound_  like any girl talk he had been warned about by the mainstream media. "What do you mean?"

Biting the ice cream again (Hayner winced), she sighed. "I wasn't any help last time, and now people are trying to kidnap me to get to Sora. And I couldn't even _remember_ him for a year. And now Riku's out there doing who knows what and I'm just sitting here and my parents don't even know where I am. And even if that Axel guy _was_ here, I wouldn't be strong enough to fight with him and I... I..." Another round of tears came out and she took another huge bite of the ice cream. "And this is really, really good!"

Well, Hayner didn't know what to do. Acknowledge the ice cream comment? Talk about that serious stuff he was literally _so_  confused about?

"Look," Hayner said. "Getting kidnapped sucks, not knowing where your friends are sucks, and disappearing and not telling your family sucks even more!"

Kairi shot him a watery glare _._

"But!" Hayner said, before he was subjected to more of that look. "You don't have to be, like, physically strong to be strong. Just like... I dunno. Use your strengths. You're friends with Sora and this Riku guy right? And if people are trying to kidnap you to get to them, it's obvious you're important to them. And I'm guessing you're smart." Kairi raised an eyebrow and Hayner threw his hands in the air. "What am I talking about, of course you're smart. You showed up at _our_  Usual Spot." He shook his head. "Imagine if you'd appeared near Seifer's gang."

Kairi laughed and rubbed at her eyes again. "So you're saying, I should use my wits if anything else happens?"

Hayner shrugged. "It's like me fighting against Seifer. I'm not _actually_  stronger than him, but I'm _going_  to be better at Struggle than him _._ If I let him think he's better than me, then I can use that to my advantage." He nodded to himself, before turning to her. "Besides. If anything happens to you, we'll protect you."

She stared at him for a long moment, before hugging him tighlty. He resisted the urge the jump in surprise, but she squeezed once and quickly moved back. 

"Thanks," she said, smiling. "I guess I needed to hear that."

Hayner nodded and smiled back. "But uh... You're eating the ice cream wrong."

Kairi rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder. He winced. 

Maybe she wasn't so bad after all. 


End file.
